Category Archives: Catalogue

It’s been literally several years since I bought a kimono. I still have ones I haven’t worn, ones that don’t fit, ones that I am too old for. I’d promised myself no more buying kimono.

And then Jess went and put this one up on the market. I have coveted this kimono for as long as she’s had it. I love the rich, dark green colour and the beautiful, delicate lilies. She needed money, I needed this kimono. Clearly, it was meant to be.

It arrived today, and it’s everything I’d been hoping for and more. I can’t wait to dress Tsukiko in it!

The body is a gorgeous rich deep green, intersected with a sort of ribbon-like fluid design and lilies. The hem is navy blue, which I did not realise in the photos!

With summer rapidly (and hotly) approaching, I figured it was high time I invest in a few more ro pieces. I managed to snag these two for a great price, and since they were from the same seller and summer sheer weave is very light, the shipping was very affordable too. When all was said and done, I paid just over $20 for the two of them, shipping included.

Grey-blue ro tsukesage with flowers
I love how soft and painterly this looks – like an impressionist watercolour. It’s definitely got a cool, breezy feel to it and I really can’t wait to wear it. I think it will look lovely with my white sha hakata and pink accessories.

Cream komon with suzu

From a distance, this doesn’t look like much – just beige with yellow dots, but up close you can see that the “dots” are actually adorable little round bells, printed in a sort of faux-bingata style. It’s absolutely adorable! Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly narrow, so I need to get off my wider-than-average butt and widen the side seams.

I had so much fun making the first Fun With Kimono Dolls post, I decided it might be good to do it again! Here are a few more reasonably accurate kimono dress-up games for you to play with when you’re bored :) Have fun!

Elouai's Candybar Dollmaker - This is NOT specifically a kimono dollmaker, there is an enormous selection of clothing, accessories, backgrounds, facial expressions, hair, etc. Sadly, no options for skin tone though. I had this doll as my avatar on the sidebar of this blog for a very long time!

Mega Yukata Creator - Lots of options for traditional-style and modern sexy style yukata here. Great selection of hair, eyes, and skintones. Sleeves and kimono construction are not totally accurate, but it's still fun. :)

Folk Fashion Kimono - Nice doll with a few hairstyles, and a large selection of accurate kimono and obi.

Kokeshi Maker - Not exactly kimono, but totally adorable! Make your own kokeshi by selecting base skintone, hairstyle, and outfit.

So as most of you know, I am a moderator over at the Immortal Geisha webforums. I do this as a labour of love, not expecting anything in return. However, every so often, the kind and wonderful community of forum members there will flabbergast me with beautiful gifts. This year marks the incredible ten-year anniversary of the forum, and in thanks, Naomi and the members secretly arranged for the moderators to get incredibly generous gift certificates with which to buy kimono.

I’d been eyeing this particular synthetic komon for a while, mainly because I thought it would coordinate perfectly with my moorish arches nagoya obi, which, until now, I’d been unable to wear. That obi was also a gift from a forum member, so it seems incredibly fitting that not only did I get to wear them together, but they look absolutely perfect together. The kimono itself is quite a strange colour; the sale photos looked grey, in indoor lighting it looks navy blue, and in sunlight it looks almost purple. Thankfully, all three of those permutations happen to look fantastic with the brick-rust colour of the obi, and the cyan accents are a near-perfect match. The lining of the kimono is even a similar rusty colour to the obi.

I paired it up with my well-loved orange and blue shiboriobiage and coordinating hakataobijime, and an awesome spade obidome from ChidoriyaWorld. I thought the spade shape mirrored the arches on the obi quite nicely. My father and I headed off to the park near my house to take pictures, and we were treated to perfect weather.

I also stole my dad’s hat, I couldn’t resist.

We also had company in the form of this silly little squirrel, who was carrying around a napkin. Not kimono-related, but too cute not to share!

Nothing terribly exciting for today, I’m afraid. I’ve just been trying to focus on buying things I need, instead of things I just want. And right now, I need more accessories. Luckily, I’ve found some great deals on really cute things lately.

Purple and red obiage

Kansai_gal snagged these for me, and I’m very grateful. Admittedly, I thought the purple one would be blue, but I didn’t have a casual purple one yet so it’s not the end of the world. However, I still need a blue obiage. XD

Embroidered stretch tabi
With feet my size, it’s always exciting to find interesting tabi that fit and aren’t the knit sport type. These may be subtle, but they’re adorable nonetheless.

Purple tachibanahaneri
I love purple, and I love tachibana. What else do I need to say here? XD

Gold saganishiki obijime
A nice, simple, dressy obijime. It’ll be good for kurotomesodekitsuke, I think.

Gold saganishiki obijime with red accents
Similar to the above, but with hits of red. Nice thing about these is that they’re all good for obidome.

Reversible gold and green obijime
I love the pop of acid green on the back of this, it contrasts so nicely with the fairly traditional gold and red on the front side.

Black and white check flat obijime
I love love love this obijime. So much. Like, I can’t even express it. It was part of a bundle, including all the subsequent ones in this entry, and I bid totally just to get this one. I love the adorable country charm of it, and it also works with obidome! I also love the weird chartreuse colour on the reverse side.

Pink, blue, and brown obijime
This one was a bit of a surprise. I thought it was simply cream, blue, and brown, but when it arrived I saw that the solid half of it is actually a really soft, charming pink.

Blue and sparkly obijime
This was another pleasant surprise – the blue side is very cute, accented with little bumps of darker blue, but the reverse is actually white with tiny metallic blue flecks!

Putrid yellow-green round obijime
This is… how can I put this delicately? This is definitely not my favourite one. It was part of the bundle and I’m sure I’ll find a use for it eventually, but it’s such an awkward, bilious colour. I might end up dyeing it, I don’t know. I can’t even imagine selling it alone, honestly.